Maple Leafs place Chris Tanev on injured reserve

The Maple Leafs announced they’ve placed right-shot defender Chris Tanev on injured reserve, retroactive to the club’s 5-2 loss to the Devils on Tuesday. Tanev is dealing with an upper-body injury and will be ineligible for the next three games at a minimum. Lefty Dakota Mermis was called up from the AHL to take Tanev’s spot on the active roster.

Tanev is no stranger to injuries, although he’s had a healthy run in the past few years, playing 70-plus games in three of the last four seasons. Thursday’s news doesn’t necessarily put that mark in jeopardy. Head coach Craig Berube only called Tanev questionable for Friday’s game against the Sabres when he spoke on Wednesday and said he was feeling better. While he obviously won’t be playing now, it indicates he’s not expected to miss much time past the seven-day minimum.

Tanev, 36 in December, only logged 5:57 of ice time against New Jersey before leaving the contest. Early in the second period, he was on the receiving end of incidental head-to-head contact with Devils forward Dawson Mercer during a net-front scrum and immediately headed to the locker room (video via TSN). Removing that outlier from the figure, Tanev is averaging around 19:40 of ice time per game — right at the mark he saw last year, his first in Toronto. The 16-year vet landed with the Leafs in free agency in 2024 on a six-year, $27M pact and has been a top-four fixture ever since. He’s spent most of that time on a pairing with Jake McCabe. The duo is controlling 45.9% of expected goals through seven games, per MoneyPuck, yet they’re still outscoring opponents 3-2 at 5-on-5. That’s down sharply from their 55.1% mark last year, which ranked 14th among 41 pairings to log at least 600 minutes together in 2024-25.

On the scoresheet, the Toronto native had one assist, a plus-three rating, and two hits through seven outings. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has been playing on his off side in third-pairing duties with Simon Benoit, will be the leading candidate to replace Tanev in top-four duties alongside McCabe for the next few games.

It’s unclear if Mermis will get a shot in the lineup. Toronto has been carrying righty Philippe Myers as a healthy extra since the start of the season, but he hasn’t played. Losing a righty to injury would seemingly give the edge to Myers to make his season debut in Buffalo on Friday.

Mermis, 31, comes up after clearing waivers late in training camp. He re-upped with the Leafs this summer on a two-year, league minimum contract after initially signing a one-year deal with Toronto in 2024. He spent a brief chunk of last season in Utah after they claimed him off waivers, but Toronto grabbed him back when he was exposed on the wire again. He got into four NHL showings, three of which were with the Leafs, with one assist and a minus-two rating. He has 78 career games since debuting with the Coyotes back in 2017-18, carrying a 4-9–13 scoring line with a plus-three rating while averaging 14:30 per game.

Mermis can remain on Toronto’s active roster for up to 30 nonconsecutive days or play 10 games until he needs to clear waivers again to return to the AHL. He’s without a point in two minor-league games to begin the season, but has a plus-two rating.